Picked up a Winchester 1890 pump

[Scooter22]

Thats cleaning up nice! I'd also let it show it's age. I like to lighty restore instead of refinish so the gun still has the character it's earned. Or you could go tactical with some Ceracoat and spray on bedliner for a non slip grip.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Or you could go tactical with some Ceracoat and spray on bedliner for a non slip grip.

Now that’s funny.
A few years ago I spotted a little Winchester 22 pump behind the counter ar a pawn shop. I ask about it and was told that it had a bad barrel and someone had taken a wire wheel to it. From where it sat it looked like a Mod 62. That squirrel in the back of my head started running in circles. The thought of a 22 pump Trench Gun came to mind. Have it parked, oil finish the stocks, have a heat shield made for it, and mount a bayonet. Now that would be cool.
Well it ended up being a 1906 so I bought it for $125 and cleaned up the inside. It’s a good little shooter.
If I can find a Rossi pump at a good price, I may still build that 22 Trench Gun.

 

[Riomouse911]

The first .22 LR I really handled on my own was an octagon 1890, I took a few shots at a squirrel or two in the oak canyons of the Texas hill country before I finally learned how to do it right.

That one was a bit of a mess when it came into your hands, but it is sure cleaning up nicely.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Here are the stocks after the first coat of BLO.



Well, I did cheat a little. I used my special can of aged BLO. It’s about 30 years old.

 

[Hokie_PhD]

Wow that rifle really cleaned up nice. Well done Gunny.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

The parts I ordered arrived today.



Now to see how much fitting will be needed on the firing pin stop.
Oh! The lanyard loop is for the US Navy Victory revolver.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Well that didn’t take long.
Here it is before. Just the back corner stock out, the part pit perfect in the slot.


A little hand filing and it was done.



I also installed an original front sight.

 

[Sistema1927]

I used the Howard's Clean & Feed on the '06 today. What a difference! I don't think that the stock had ever been off of it in it's long and storied life. I didn't find any rust or corrosion inside, but made sure to give that metal a cleaning and lube. Thanks for the good advice.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I used the Howard's Clean & Feed on the '06 today. What a difference! I don't think that the stock had ever been off of it in it's long and storied life. I didn't find any rust or corrosion inside, but made sure to give that metal a cleaning and lube. Thanks for the good advice.

Be sure to read the warnings on the back of the bottle. If you apply it near an open flame, you may burst into flames.
There’s a lot more in that bottle then orange oil and bee’s wax. But it’s all good for wood.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Well, I finished up the 1890 today. Everything went together very easy and the action is smooth.
I had some CB short and put five into the mag tube. I fired them into the dirt pile in the back yard. It functioned great.
Here it is, some before and after pics.

 

[kBob]

A Gunsmith friend did one of these for a guy. It was basically rusted shut. Now some of the purist out there will cringe but the customer wanted it "like new" so it got a bit more draw file and buff than most of us would like and then a deep "go swimming in it" hot blue. The barrel was sewer pipe-ish so he drilled it and epoxied in a liner and did a wonderful blend at the muzzle. It did look new.....sort of like a new Rossi.... It was however great work for that sort of thing and I had to not cringe when handling the gun a few weeks after first seeing it so as to not offend a friend.

The customer was tickled pink.

Thanks for sharing your work Gunny and thanks for letting this one be itself.

If it did not have that great Lyman rear I would have suggested displaying it with a few white clay pipes and a Cupie Doll. Hmm, wonder how many of us are old enough to have shot these at a County Fair with the pressed clay Gallery shorts?

-kBob

 

[Hokie_PhD]

Gunny Nice job.

As a car guy when I think restoration, I think showroom condition or show car condition.

So seeing a restoration where you’ve kept the age but cleaned it up and made it look loved is a nice different perspective.

I like that you took a gun that clearly needed TLC, gave it what it needed but didn’t go beyond that. Your workmanship and pride is clearly showing. Again, nice job.

 

[GooseGestapo]

I did a similar refurbishment to an aquaintances Rem M11 .22long SS, falling block.
It looked decent and though barrel looked like a rusty sewer pipe, would group inside a coke can at 50feet after I got it cleaned up. Actual traces of rifling remains. He said his grand father used it to slaughter cattle and pigs at a custom butcher shop in 20’s- late 30’s, hadn’t to his knowledge been shot for over 70yrs.
I just happened to have a partial box of longs I’d been given. I only shot shorts and cb’s through it. Gave him the longs for display (original box from ‘50’s).
We shot a handful of Aguila super colibri through it behind his office in town. Quieter than an air rifle and unnoticeable due to auto body shop down the street. He was thrilled. Planned on putting it on display.

Here’s a Marlin M1893 in .25-36M I rescued. It had a fine coat of rust and stocks were black. Shoots~2” at 100ysd with Hornady 110gr FTX in reformed .30/30cases over 27.5gr of CFE223.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I did a similar refurbishment to an aquaintances Rem M11 .22long SS, falling block.
It looked decent and though barrel looked like a rusty sewer pipe, would group inside a coke can at 50feet after I got it cleaned up. Actual traces of rifling remains. He said his grand father used it to slaughter cattle and pigs at a custom butcher shop in 20’s- late 30’s, hadn’t to his knowledge been shot for over 70yrs.
I just happened to have a partial box of longs I’d been given. I only shot shorts and cb’s through it. Gave him the longs for display (original box from ‘50’s).
We shot a handful of Aguila super colibri through it behind his office in town. Quieter than an air rifle and unnoticeable due to auto body shop down the street. He was thrilled. Planned on putting it on display.

Here’s a Marlin M1893 in .25-36M I rescued. It had a fine coat of rust and stocks were black. Shoots~2” at 100ysd with Hornady 110gr FTX in reformed .30/30cases over 27.5gr of CFE223.

That Marlin looks good. There is just something about bringing theses neglected guns back to life.

 

[Bull Nutria]

Thanks Gunny great before and after photos! You did an outstanding job on that old girl, I really enjoyed this thread!!

If I am not mistaken RC Model had one of these old Winchester 22 pumps and let me "coon-finger" it when I went to visit him at his home in Lawrence ,KS!
"Coon-Finger" was RC's term for intimately handling a firearm!!

Bull

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Thanks Gunny great before and after photos! You did an outstanding job on that old girl, I really enjoyed this thread!!

If I am not mistaken RC Model had one of these old Winchester 22 pumps and let me "coon-finger" it when I went to visit him at his home in Lawrence ,KS!
"Coon-Finger" was RC's term for intimately handling a firearm!!

Bull

I like that, "Coon-Finger". What we called it in the Corps can't be used on the forum.
If you ever find yourself in my area, you are more then welcome to stop by and Coon-Finger any of my guns. We could even go over to the Bass Pro to shoot handguns.

 

[theotherwaldo]

-That's my idea of a restoration.
Minimize the neglect and abuse but keep the rest of the history.

 

[forward observer]

Having just discovered this thread, I read through it and if the following info was mentioned, I didn't catch it.

Your rifle was definitely built as a gallery model and the mismatched serial numbers is almost positive proof that it spent some time in a working shooting gallery. A gallery model has a distinct loading port cut into the magazine tube as opposed to a non-gallery model.

First of all, all gallery models were chambered in .22 short. I don't know when it started but both Remington and Winchester-Western manufactured special gallery ammunition called "spatterless" gallery ammo (there is no "l" in the word). The projectiles were not cast, but were made from pressed lead powder. Hence when they hit a metal target or the backdrop of the gallery, they would disintegrate into lead dust.
(nobody was concerned about breathing lead dust at the time)

The loading port for a standard model was simply a cutout shaped like the profile of a .22 cartridge-only larger. The loading port on a gallery model is shaped like a large triangular keyhole just like yours. This is because galleries didn't reload the guns by hand--one bullet at a time. Instead they used speed load tubes, which Winchester provided (at a price of course) These were nothing more than metal tubes closed on one end that would hold up to 20 of the shorts. These were kept in racks with the open end of the tube up. When a gun needed to be reloaded, the gallery worker pulled the inner spring tube to clear the loading port. and then would hold his finger over the open end of the speed load tube until he could insert it into the keyhole shaped port. At that point, gravity took over and the magazine was loaded instantaneously. Then while customers were shooting, the gallery workers had time to reload the speed tubes the old fashioned way.

Lastly, as mentioned, your upper and lower receiver sections having mismatched serial numbers--is an almost sure sign that your rifle spent at least some time as a working gallery gun. This comes from the fact that when the gallery workers got around to cleaning the guns, they did it during down time and did all the guns at once. They simply didn't bother to match up the serial numbers when they reassembled the two halves of the gun.

Nice restore by the way.

P.S.

Here's a rare box of the spatterless gallery ammo for sale currently on GB.com
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/776163616


Cheers

 

[GunnyUSMC]

forward observer
Great info.
Here is what I know about the rifle. Jim said that his mom got from his grandmother. He believes it belonged to his grandfather, but was not sure because he grandfather passed away before he was born. He said his mother would go squirrel hunting with his dad. If the squirrels were to high in the trees for his dad to shoot with his 16 ga, his mother would shoot them with the rifle. He said that as long as he could remember the firing pin stop had been missing. When he was old enough to shoot it, the front sight was broken, and he had to shoot it like a single shot, by single loading and use a pocket knife to remove the spent case.
So we know that it was once a Gallery rifle, but not sure how it made it's way to Jim's family.
I showed it to Jim the other day and it put a big smile on his face. He said he was about five the last time the gun looked that good.

 

[Mn Fats]

That peep sight is fricken awesome.